Voodoo Open Season Friday

The New Orleans Voodoo are set for their Arena football season and will take on the hosting Los Angeles Avengers at the Staples Center. Arena Football is back and the Voodoo look to have a successful campaign after a disappointing 5-11 last year, their first losing record in franchise history, which is three years. They will try to do so under QB Steve Bellisari, who had a successful year last year as our back-up quarterback when he got to play for injured QB Andy Kelly. With Andy finally retiring, Head Coach Mike Neu will put Bellisari in charge. Music to my ears. Bellisari was much better than old man Kelly. Yet Mike Neu stuck with his papa bear first string quarterback. Why? Because of experience? Screw that! He played just as well as Bobby Hebert could play if he stepped on the field right now. The man was old and washed up. Bellisari will get to start the entire season with what is considered a stellar WR core. Even with the big addition Derek Lewis going down with an ACL before the season even starts, the offense still looks to be much improved from last year. I still wish we had our original expansion team back from 2004. That magical expansion year for the Voodoo. No preseason, just started playing football in the AFL for the first time and finished 11-5. Next year, we went 9-7. Katrina came, suspended operations for ’06. Came back in ’07 as an expansion team again and did as well as you would expect an expansion team would, 5-11. With an improved team, expectations will be much higher.

The Voodoo play in the “Graveyard”, the place which doubles as “The Hive” for the Hornets, the New Orleans Arena.

Last year saw near sell out crowds at every game. This year might be different depending on how many fans make it to the Hive on Hornets game nights and the fact that they only reached 10,00 season tickets about 2 weeks ago. It doesn’t matter though. The Voodoo aren’t a major franchise. Their semi-pro. I’d take people at the Hive over the Graveyard any day.

Former Saint Chris Horn is on the Voodoo roster at WR. He was released from the Saints in Preseason last year.

Calvin Spears returns at Defensive back.

News and Notes:

Every Voodoo game can be heard on Bayou 95.7 with Mike Conti and Gus Kattengel.

Mike Conti takes over this year for Kenny Wilkerson who was the Voodoo play-by-play guy last year.

The New Orleans VooDoo and the Los Angeles Avengers:
will kick off the 2008 AFL season when they meet at the
STAPLES Center at 9:30 p.m. CT on Friday, February 29.
New Orleans completed a three-week training camp, as
they worked to establish chemistry on offense defense and
special teams. Seeking to improve on a 5-11 record in
2007, the VooDoo re-signed key components such as QB
Steve Bellisari, DL Henry Bryant, FB James Lynch, DL
Michale Spicer and WR Wendall Williams.
The VooDoo also set on improving through free agency
and trades. Newcomers such as WR Chris Horn, OL
Adam Metts, LB Umar Muhammad, DL Lauvale Sape
and DB Lin-J Shell upgrade the depth and talent level.
New Orleans, who have opened on the road every season
will be seeking to start with a win for the first time since
2004, their inaugural campaign. The VooDoo hosted Los
Angeles on March 24, 2007 and fell 48-36, in a contest
where New Orleans trailed by two points heading into the
fourth quarter.